Sorry, this movie sucks

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Let's get one thing straight. This movie isn't historically accurate. It is much more a movie about the relationship between a grandmaster and his respected opponent's daughter than a biography of Ip Man. That being said, if you know that's what the movie is going to be, it isn't a bad film after all. There have been countless movies about Ip Man and it's refreshing to get something else than more worship for a historical character whose legacy is bigger than the character really was. I'm not saying Ip Man wasn't a fascinating character with a strong moral compass who had an important influence on martial arts cultures, but after Ip Man, Ip Man 2, Ip Man 3, The Legend is Born - Ip Man, Ip Man: The Final Fight and The Legend of Bruce Lee, the world doesn't need another blockbuster that tells us what great guy he was.The problem of this movie is something completely different. It has a shallow story partially based on fiction and partially based on facts that could be described in four sentences. Southern grandmaster starts to care about Northern grandmaster's daughter despite being married. Northern heir apparent collaborates with Japanese invaders and kills his master. Northern grandmaster's daughter vows to take revenge instead of getting married, having children and teaching martial arts. After getting her revenge, she meets the Northern grandmaster in exile and they talk about what could or couldn't have been if fate had been gentler to them.Wong Kar-Wai's movies always had a slow and philosophical touch but they had a mysterious and even slightly supernatural touch that made Ashes of Time so profound and 2046 so dreamy. The Grandmaster is slow and philosophical but is missing the unique atmosphere and content of the other two movies. If the film were seventy-five minutes long without unnecessary flashbacks and side stories, it would be a very good movie. Clocking in around two hours, depending on which of the versions you might have come across, this movie loses momentum and turns out being slightly above average.The fact that this movie is still slightly above average and not a complete disappointment is related to three reasons. First of all, the movie's cinematography is gorgeous. Images and words are carefully chosen, the change of seasons and weather is portrayed perfectly and the fight scenes are particularly elegant and almost poetic by honouring the essence of the wu xia genre. The director might at times overuse the natural symbols and the slow-motion camera effects but these elements are still beautiful to watch. Secondly, the movie has a slightly gloomy atmosphere from start to finish that keeps it together despite the at times random time-line. The film shows us examples of resilience despite severe hardship. On the other side, the movie also keeps a different message for us: you have to see beyond the boundaries to become who you deserve to be. Thirdly, the acting performances are solid. Tony Leung is authentic as calm and wise grandmaster who still has his minor flaws and weaknesses. I really liked his balanced portrait of the character which is a welcome change in comparison to the numerous movies worshipping Ip Man. The most stunning actress is Zhang Ziyi in this film. She convinces as ambitious, proud and smart young woman who progressively becomes bitter, nostalgic and tired. This gradual transformation is absolutely haunting to watch and would have been even more efficient without the use of flashbacks. That being said, it's difficult to escape her genuinely beautiful and elegant appearance on screen which makes the character's fate even gloomier. The fight scenes in the movie are very poetic but so are Zhang Ziyi's costumes, face and movements and she remains credible as her father's skilled avenger. Nobody could have played this role better than her.In the end, if you are familiar with Wong Kar-Wai philosophical and poetic wu xia movies, you will also appreciate The Grandmaster. The acting performances are very good, the cinematography is beautiful and the movie has a gloomy vibe while still delivering a hopeful message. If you are looking for a historically accurate portrait of Ip Man or if you are expecting a vivid martial arts flick as the movies starring Donnie Yen, you might not get what you want. In the end, this is a martial arts movie that really focuses on the second part of its expression: arts.

Kar Wai Wong tries his hand on martial arts films and trips all over his first movements. That is more or less what happens with "The Grandmaster", which looks amazing, has a confusing story (even if it is a very simple one) and the longest train I remember.The story is simple enough, and follows famous Bruce Lee's master Ip Man and two moments of his life: in Foshan, around 1936 and afterwards, in Hong-Kong. The two parts of the movie are not really well gelled, and the plot wanders and loses itself in the hills.As said above, it looks really beautiful, but Kar Wai Wong just seems to have understood "be water" in the meaning of endless fights under the rain. Which look cool, I have to admit, but empty and shallow. Martial arts films are not only about the fights, but also about the spectacle, the martial arts per se, and the thrill of fighters jumping, falling and breaking bones. Here, it looks as Kar Wai Wong looked at "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and thought that what the movie was lacking was more slow motion.The actors do a good job, even if Ziyi Zhang is not at the top of her game. Tony Leung as Ip Man is, and he shows a lot with just a little bit of his lips curling or an eyebrow raising. But the director is just thinking about making a pretty looking film, not a film with heart. And that hurts the story and the end result.Beautiful and empty.

I think The Grandmaster is the tribute to martial arts and it is a literary film. Obviously, it is not a story of a master or a story of one style of martial arts. It is the heritage and development of the martial arts of Hong Kong in the era. It also shows audiences the Chinese martial arts and what deep meaning they have. In the movie we saw the three main contents:1. IP man as a martial artist, he does not have a martial arts school and he only teaches people who he likes. Because he does not think learn martial arts likes to buy vegetables in market, he should thinking and take care;2. Gong leaves hometown and living in Hong Kong, she is dispirited and discouraged so she does not want to teach people martial arts any more;3. Yixiantian set up a school of martial arts, and teaches people. They are three common situations of martial arts in that era.In the early China, the word kung fu does not exist. We just call it "martial arts". It is a fighting skill. In the film, before shooting actors to follow the real folk martial arts master learning martial arts, so the martial arts in the film comes from real factions in China. And, different factions have different forms. (Completely different combat skills) that is different in martial arts films. We usually see Kong fu in martial arts film is powerful and amazing, but this kind of kung fu mostly depends on the stunt, it is not real. The design of the many plots in the film contains some "rules" in the real world of martial arts: for example, Gong challenges Ye, narrowly won a little bit, so she cuts her hair and decided not marry. And she challenges to Ma San to revenge--this is the custom of the world of martial arts. In Chinese traditional culture people pay a lot of attention to practice and restrain them. Both of their thoughts and actions. So we can see even if Gong is a woman, she also fight for honour of her family. And Ye is loyal and brave when he faces a troublous country. The director of the film is Karwei Wong. He is a famous Hong Kong director. People familiar with the director should have a similar feeling - his film give person a feeling like they are in the dream. Wong's narrative way is not consistent; he likes the story apart and reassembles. And on colors Karwei Wong likes high strength contrast between cool color and warm color, dark and light. Wong's films always vague. But in The Grandmaster, he takes more serious, sincere and humanistic care. There are lots sentences very significant in the movie. "Encounters：All the encounters in the world seem like reuniting after a long separation." "Even thousands of mountains could not obstruct the way to realize one promise." "There must something keeping in your mind that makes you remember someone." And so on. These sentences expressed the attitude of people in facing love and duty. There are a lot of the audience asked, why Gong and Ye not to be together? Finally, I want to use a Chinese proverb to answer: rather than leave them to moisten each other with their damp and spittle it would be far better to let them forget themselves in their native rivers and lakes. （this sentences from Chuang tzu）I think it means sometimes people should understand all the arts of life is how to holding on and letting go.In The Grandmaster, I love these martial arts most. Because fighting dramas very wonderful in this film. In China, different Chinese martial arts usually mean different thinking. In this movie we can see Wing Chun, Eight Diagrams Palm, Octupole Fist and so on. And it is easy to find that eight diagrams palm is from Daoism, because the concept of the eight diagrams is from Daoism. The glamour of Chinese martial arts is not how fighting skills powerful. It is every different martial arts makes people think about self, think about life and other people. Ye has a sentence" To see myself. To see the world. To see the life." In Chinese traditional culture, people always think about the relationship between people and nature, between people and society, between people and people. We can see many Chinese directors discuss this topic and elements in their movies. (Like Ang Lee and Yimou Zhang) After watching The Grandmaster, I think it is not a typical martial arts film, it show more deeply meaning of what martial arts real are.

I can see why some people might not like "The Grandmaster". Martial artists who want an accurate biopic of Ip Man will be as disappointed by this as by the earlier film "Ip Man"; on the other hand, such a film would probably be deadly boring to anyone else. On the other hand, people wanting a straightforward kung fu flick will also be disappointed. This is a kung fu art film, and as such, it excels. Every shot is a picture, and the film should be watched accordingly. If you don't like the kind of film where the camera pans away from a fight to zoom in on some raindrops, don't watch it.The story is a little confusing, not least because it is as much about Gong Er as Ip Man - in fact it should have been called "The Grandmasters" (a title Wong Kar-Wai briefly considered). The understated flirtation between the two of them is a rather thin device to keep the two story-lines together and the main reason I'm not giving this film a ten. Having a real person fall in love with a fictional character just seems pointless. The other thing I knocked off a point for is that the stories of the other masters - Ma San and The Razor - seem to have been mostly left on the cutting room floor. Ma Sen thus comes across as a cardboard "bad student" and The Razor seems superfluous.From a martial arts point of view, it's fun watching the different styles and the disputes between them. Again, nothing actually happened like it did in the film, and the fights are stylised representations of what a fight between masters of different styles would look like, but the moves are recognisable as Wing Chun, Hong Gar, Bagua and so forth. Zhang Ziyi studied a lot of Bagua while preparing for the film, and it shows. A martial arts (or even a martial arts film) background is not necessary to enjoy the film, though; the cinematography alone carries it.